The good fathers encouraged us with their exhortations, and some of
them, mingling with us in the most dangerous places in the ranks, said
to us,--
"My sons, do not be discouraged. Foreseeing this event we have saved
moderate quantities of food, and we have wine also. Give this mob
plenty of powder! Courage, dear boys! Do not be afraid of the enemy's
lead. You do more damage with one of your glances than they with a
discharge of lead. Forward, my sons! The Holy Virgin del Pilar is with
you. Don't wince at danger; face the enemy calmly, and in the cloud of
battle you will see the holy form of the Mother of God. Viva Spain and
Fernando VII!"
We reached the church; but the French, who had preceded us by the
sacristy, already occupied the high altar. I had never before seen
a churrigueresque altar all covered with sculptures and garlands of
gold, serving as a breastwork for infantry; nor had I ever seen niches
which served as the lodging places of a thousand carved saints vomiting
forth fire. I had never seen the rays of gilded wood which shed their
changeless light from pasteboard clouds peopled by little angels,
confused with gun-flashes; nor behind the feet of Christ, and back
of the golden halo of the Virgin Mary, the avenging eyes of soldiers
taking death-dealing aim.
It is well to say that the high altar of San Augustine was an enormous
one, filled with gilded wooden sculptures, like others you have seen
in any of the churches of Spain. It extended from the floor to the
arch above, and from wall to wall, and represented in row upon row the
celestial hierarchies. Above, the blood-stained Christ spread his arms
upon the cross; below, and on the altar, a little shrine enclosed the
symbol of the Eucharist. Although the whole was supported by the ground
and the walls, there were little interior covered ways destined for the
special services of that republic of saints, and by them the sacristan
could ascend from the sacristy to change the dress of the Virgin, to
light the candles before the highest crucifix, or to clean the dust of
centuries from the antique fabrics and painted wood of the images.
Well, the French rapidly gained possession of the _camarín_ of the
Virgin, and the narrow passages I have spoken of. When we arrived,
from behind each saint, in every niche, gleamed a gun barrel.
Established thus behind the altar, and advancing slowly forward, they
were preparing to take all of this upper part of the church.
We were not entirely unprotected; and in order to defend ourselves
from the altar-piece, we occupied the confessionals, the altars of the
chapels, and the galleries. Those of us who were most exposed were in
the central nave; and while the more daring advanced resolutely towards
the altar, others of us took positions in the lower choir; and from
behind the chorister's desk, from behind chairs and benches which we
piled up against the choir-screen, we tried to dislodge the French
nation from its possession of the high altar.
Tio Garces, with others as brave, ran to occupy the pulpit, another
churrigueresque structure whose sounding board was crowned by a statue
of Faith which reached almost to the roof. They mounted, occupying
the little stair and the great chair, and from there, by a singular
chance, they shut up every Frenchman who dared to show his head in that
direction. They also suffered great loss, for the men in the altar were
much annoyed by the pulpit, and tried hard to get that obstacle out of
their way. At last some twenty Imperials came out, evidently bent upon
reducing at all hazards that wooden redoubt without whose possession it
was madness to attempt to come out into the broad nave. I have never
seen anything more like a great battle, and as in that the attention of
both armies is concentrated upon one point, the most eagerly disputed
of all, whose loss or conquest decides the outcome of the struggle, so
the attention of all was now directed to the pulpit, so well defended
and so well attacked. The twenty had to resist a sharp fire from us
in the choir, and the hand-grenades which were thrown at them from
the galleries. But in spite of great loss, they advanced resolutely,
bayonets fixed, upon the pulpit stairway. The ten defenders of the
fortress were not intimidated, and defended themselves with empty guns,
with the unfailing superiority which they always showed in that kind
of conflict. Many of our men who were firing from the chapel altars
and the confessionals, ran to attack the French with their swords,
representing in that way, in miniature, conditions of a rude field
battle; the contest was waged, man to man, with bayonet-thrusts, guns,
and blows as each one met his adversary.
The enemy was reinforced from the sacristy, and our rear-guard also
came out of the choir. Some who were in the gallery on the right jumped
upon the cornice of a great reredos at one side, and not satisfied
with firing from there, threw down upon the French three statues of
saints that capped its three angles. Meantime the pulpit was still held
bravely, and in that hell of flame I saw Tio Garces standing erect,
directing the men, and looking like a preacher screaming impudently
with a hoarse voice. If I should ever see the devil preaching sin,
standing on the great chair in the pulpit of a church invaded by all
the other demons of hell in hideous riot, it would not especially
attract my attention after that.
This could not last long; and Tio Garces presently fell, screaming
hoarsely, pierced by a hundred balls. The French, who had poured up
by way of the sacristy, now advanced in a closed column, and in the
three steps which separated the presbytery from the rest of the church,
offered us a wall-like defence. When this column fired, the question of
the pulpit was instantly settled, and having lost one out of every five
of our men, leaving a large number of our dead upon the tiles of the
floor, we retreated to the chapels. The first defenders of the pulpit,
those who had gone to reinforce them, and Tio Garces also, were picked
up on bayonets, pierced through and tossed over the redoubt. So died
that great patriot unnamed in history.
The captain of our company remained lifeless also upon the pavement.
We retired in disorderly fashion to various points separated from one
another, not knowing who would command us. Indeed, the initiative of
each one, or of each group of two or three, was the only organization
then possible, and no one thought of companies or of military rank.
All were obedient to one common purpose, and showed a marvellous
instinctive knowledge of rudimentary strategy which the exigencies of
the struggle demanded at every moment. This instinctive insight made us
understand that we were lost from the time that we got into the chapels
on the right, and it was rashness to persist in the defence of the
church before the great numbers of the French who now occupied it. Some
of our soldiers thought that with the benches, the images, and the wood
of an old altar-piece, which could easily be broken to pieces, we ought
to raise a barricade in the arch of our chapel, and defend ourselves to
the last; but two Augustine fathers opposed this useless effort.
"My sons, do not trouble yourselves to prolong the resistance which
will only destroy you, and give our side no advantage," said one
of them. "The French are attacking this moment by the Calle de las
Arcades. Hasten there, and see if you can not harass them; but do not
imagine that you can defend the church profaned by these savages."
These exhortations decided us to leave the church. Some of the
Estremadura men remained in the choir, exchanging shots with the
French, who now filled the nave. The friars only half-fulfilled their
promise of giving us something for which to sing "_Gaudeamus_." As a
recompense for having defended their church to the last extreme, they
were giving us some bits of jerked beef and dry bread, without our
seeing or smelling the wine anywhere, in spite of our straining our
eyes and our nostrils. But to explain this, they said that the French,
occupying all the upper part, had possession of all the principal
storehouse of provisions. Lamenting this, they tried to console us with
praises of our good behavior.
The failure of the wine made me remember the great Pirli. I happened to
recollect that I had seen him at the beginning of the battle. I asked
for him, but nobody could account for his disappearance. The French
occupied the church, and also some of the upper part of the convent.
In spite of our unfavorable position below, we were resolved to go on
resisting; and we bore in mind the heroic conduct of the volunteers of
Huesca, who defended Las Monicas until they were buried beneath its
ruins. We were maddened, and believed ourselves disgraced if we did not
conquer. We were impelled to these desperate struggles by a hidden,
irresistible force which I cannot explain except as the strong tension
and spiritual exaltation springing from our aspirations towards the
ideal.
An order from outside stopped us, dictated doubtless by the practical
good sense of General Saint March.
"The convent cannot be held," it was said. "Instead of sacrificing men
with no advantage to the city, let all go out to defend the points
attacked in the Calle de Pabostre, and the Puerta Quemada, where the
enemy are trying to advance, conquering houses from which they have
been repulsed various times."
We therefore left San Augustine. While we were passing through the
street of the same name, parallel with the Calle de Palomar, we saw
that they were throwing hand-grenades among the French established in
a little opening near the latter of these two streets. Who was throwing
those projectiles from the tower? In order to tell it more briefly,
and with greatest eloquence, let us open the history and read: "In the
tower six or eight peasants had placed themselves, having provided
themselves with provisions and ammunition to harass the enemy. They
continued to hold it for some days without being willing to surrender."
There was the glorious Pirli! Oh, Pirli, more happy than Tio Garces,
thou dost occupy a place in history!